இயற்பியல் வேதியியல் & உயிர் இயற்பியல் இதழ்
திறந்த அணுகல்

சுருக்கம்

Biodiesel Production from Jatropha curcus: the Nigerian and Tanzanian Experiences and Implications for Africa

Bugaje IM

Environmental and economic concerns have been driving the development of alternative green and renewable liquid fuels for transport for several years across the globe. Many African countries have joined this movement which saw the promotion of Jatropha for biodiesel production. The paper reviews these developments using Nigeria and Tanzania as case studies. It is clear that more than a decade of this policy campaign has yielded very limited success. It is evident that across the African landscape, Jatropha farmers hopes have been dashed, investments in Jatropha Biodiesel have failed and environmental degradation in some countries has occurred in the promotion of Jatropha plantations. It therefore becomes imperative to go back to the drawing board for a thorough techno-economic review. Jatropha clearly is unsuitable, both economically and environmentally, for biodiesel production and there is need to fund research to screen other indigenous African plants seeds for biodiesel production. There is also need to introduce Biofuels Production in higher education curricula in African countries. The COBRA consists of periodically spaced orifice baffles along the length of the tubular reactor that is superimposed with a reversing oscillatory component, giving both high fluid mixing and narrow residence time distributions. This has been designed and successfully tested in the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria as well as some European universities.